Laurence Luckinbill To Present 'Boys In The Band'

1970 Drama Was First U.S. Movie To Openly Discuss Homosexuality

In the late 60s, actor Laurence Luckinbill was offered a part the play "The Boys in the Band." His agent told him to turn it down. This was unusual, since she represented the writer who wrote the play, too.

"She said no, you must not do this play ... It would kill your career when it's just getting going," Luckinbill said. "I made the decision on my own to do it."

So he did. It was a huge hit, and then was made into a movie, which caused a sensation. Still, to a degree his agent was right. It hurt his career in some ways.

"For a couple of films, I was told that I was kicked right out of the running because of that movie I made. And it was the first movie I made!" he said, laughing. He also was let go from a cigarette advertising campaign he already had worked on for several months. "The guy said ... 'no fags smoke our fags'."

"The Boys in the Band" messed up a lot of actors' careers, but none of the cast members regretted making it, because it was the first American movie to deal frankly with homosexuality. Its release, like the release of the play, was praised by gay men all over the country, who finally saw people on the screen who were like them who were not depicted as villainous or mentally unbalanced.

That groundbreaking 1970 film, written by Mart Crowley, will be shown on Sunday, June 30, at Ridgefield Playhouse. Luckinbill will be there for a Q&A. The movie's director, William Friedkin, who went on to direct "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," also will do a Q&A, via Skype.

The comic drama tells the story of a bunch of gay male friends getting together to celebrate a birthday. A straight friend of the host shows up unexpectedly, everybody gets drunk and then secrets, lost loves and old frustrations spill out.

Luckinbill is heterosexual. He lives in Weston with his wife of 33 years, Lucie Arnaz. But he said in an interview that when he was being discriminated against post-"Boys," he did not think that his heterosexuality was a valid argument to use to get jobs. "That would be a way of setting myself apart from them. You don't take that tack," he said.

However, he was willing to use his sexual preference as a launching-off point to defend the movie, and told a story about the talk show host David Susskind, who had the cast on his show.

"The guys didn't really want to go. They knew where he was going to go with it," he said. "We went on. The guys were uneasy. Then I spoke up. I did make the point that I was not gay, but I said. 'I want you to know that that's beside the point. What is the point is tolerance.' David became a fan of mine after that."

A few years after its release, "Boys" fell out of favor, because all of the characters carried anger around with them, which was the reason the emotions became so explosive. Gay men decided that self-loathing depictions had become passe. The film has come back into favor, and Luckinbill thinks he understands why.

"I talk to gay people a lot about this. Isn't it true that you hated yourself when you were a kid? Very few of them can say no. Some will give it thought and say 'if society was going to put me down like that it made me angry'," he said. "Then I ask, 'what did the anger make you do?' The answer is, 'I drank, I did dope and I became Emery'," referring to the most effeminate character in the movie.

"Behind that in-your-face Nelly stuff is anger," he said. "We know this now, that self-loathing and self-destructive behavior comes from anger."

Luckinbill says he is happy with the career he has had. He has had plenty of good roles – he is most proud of playing Lyndon Johnson, Ernest Hemingway, Teddy Roosevelt and Clarence Darrow — and for every person who tells him he doesn't like "Boys," he get many more who tell him he does.

"People come up to me and call me Hank," he said, referring to his character. "They say I changed their life."

THE BOYS IN THE BAND will be shown Sunday, June 30, at 6:30 p.m. at Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge in Ridgefield. Laurence Luckinbill will do a Q&A after the screening, and a Skype session will be held with director William Friedkin. Admission is $10, $7.50 seniors, $5 students. Details: www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org.